BAWDY BASKET. The twenty-third rank of canters, who
carry pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but live
mostly by stealing. Cant.

BAWDY-HOUSE BOTTLE. A very small bottle; short measure
being among the many means used by the keepers of those
houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood: indeed
this is one of the least reprehensible; the less they give a
man of their infernal beverages for his money, the kinder
they behave to him.

BAY FEVER. A term of ridicule applied to convicts, who
sham illness, to avoid being sent to Botany Bay.

BAYARD OF TEN TOES. To ride bayard of ten toes, is to
walk on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances,

BEAK. A justice of-peace, or magistrate. Also a judge or
chairman who presides in court. I clapp'd my peepers
full of tears, and so the old beak set me free; I began to
weep, and the judge set me free.

BEAN. A guinea. Half bean; half a guinea.

BEAR. One who contracts to deliver a certain quantity of
sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at
stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got,
like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin
before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he
is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not